Careers at Instiglio

How you will make an impact 

• Impact strategy. As a member of our Africa Leadership Team, you will develop our regional strategy with a focus on the Anglophone sub-region, mapping where and how we can scale impact, in which countries, sectors, and with which partners, and working with local teams to grow high-performing teams and new offices.
• Public-sector reform. Empower senior officials through complex reform processes, helping them diagnose root causes, align incentives, and navigate political and institutional realities.
• Partnership development. Drive partnership development across Anglophone Africa, leveraging your strong existing network. You will build and nurture relationships with government, donor, philanthropic, and practitioner stakeholders, and lead compelling, high-impact engagements.
• Delivery leadership. Provide strategic, technical, and team leadership across our projects, driving quality, innovation, and excellent delivery to exceed client expectations.
• Thought leadership and positioning. Advance our thought leadership, evolve our technical practice, and work with our communications team to strengthen Instiglio's positioning and influence across regional and global ecosystems.
• Organisational development. As a steward of our culture, oversee the performance, growth, and health of your teams, ensuring strong performance, wellbeing, and the systems to support sustainable growth.

Requirements & qualifications 

An ideal candidate will have the following: 

Education:

• A relevant postgraduate degree focused on international development (public administration, public policy, development economics, governance and institutions).

Experience:  

• At least 12 years' experience, including relevant work in social impact or government advisory, international development, the public sector, management consulting, and/or development policy and innovation. Combinations of the above are ideal. 
• Demonstrated experience in government institutional reforms and or/transformation, advising or operating in senior government official roles on public-sector reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Demonstrated experience in evidence-based policy design, results-based financing, theories of change, delivery management, and/or performance management or related fields. 
• Successful track record in sourcing and managing partnerships (multiple stakeholders in complex settings), with at least 2 years of Government, multi/bilateral donors and philanthropy. 
• Extensive experience growing and managing multicultural teams. 

Skills:  

• Exceptional strategic, innovative, and structured thinking, with strong problem-solving skills
• Strong organisational oversight, continually looking to add value
• Proven experience managing relationships with public-sector leaders and international funding agencies; the ideal candidate will bring their own relationships in the region
• Excellent project management, able to lead multiple teams on complex tasks
• Exceptional written and oral communication in English, with proven success presenting ideas persuasively
• Leadership and empathy, with the ability to influence people positively
• Impact-driven, resilient, results-oriented, with strong commercial acumen

We also welcome: 

• Work experience in management consulting. 
• Strong operational and financial management experience. 
• Knowledge of Results-Based Financing mechanisms and/or experience related to the field (such as theories of change, log frames and results frameworks). 

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How You Will Make an Impact

• This is a role that sits at the intersection of strategy, change management, and innovation — not in the abstract, but in practice. You will lead complex, high-stakes engagements that directly shape how billions of development dollars are spent, and how governments serve millions of citizens. 

Specifically, you will: 

• Own high-impact partnerships: Take full ownership of multi-year engagements with MDBs, bilaterals, and philanthropies — from problem structuring through implementation. Diagnose how institutions invest and manage performance, structure the strategic options, and build the analytical case for the recommended path. Translate sophisticated analysis into clear recommendations that senior decision-makers can act on. 
• Structure and pressure-test innovation bets: Take ambiguous, frontier problems — from AI-enabled tools for government reformers to new financing mechanisms for climate outcomes — and structure them into testable hypotheses and workable pilots. 
• Manage complex stakeholder environments: Build trusted relationships with senior counterparts in governments, development agencies, and philanthropic organizations. Navigate multi-stakeholder dynamics with confidence, knowing when to push, when to listen, and how to build coalitions for change. 
• Lead teams and delivery: Manage multidisciplinary teams across workstreams, geographies, and time zones. Own budgets, timelines, and the quality bar of every deliverable — and develop the people around you. 
• Contribute to thought leadership: Help shape Instiglio’s intellectual contributions in results-based financing, performance management, and global partnership strategy, feeding into a growing body of work that influences policy and practice globally. 

Who You Are

• You combine the structured rigor of a top-tier strategy consultant with a deep, credible commitment to development impact. You are energized by complexity, undaunted by ambiguity, and comfortable being the person in the room responsible for the answer. 

Experience

• A strong strategy consulting background is required — typically 3+ years at a top-tier or leading strategy firm (MBB, a Big Four strategy practice, or a specialized development strategy firm) — paired with meaningful exposure to international development.  
• Significant total professional experience: typically 9+ years for Manager, 11+ for Senior Manager, and we welcome candidates whose experience exceeds these thresholds. 
• Demonstrated experience working with or inside multilateral and bilateral institutions, large philanthropies, or global development organizations. 
• A track record of leading multi-stakeholder, multi-country engagements from problem structuring through implementation. 
• Experience designing strategic initiatives or large-scale programs — not just advising on them. 
• Exposure to results-based financing, performance management, or impact measurement is highly desirable. 

Education 

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Public Policy, Economics, Business, Development Studies, or related fields.

Languages

• Excellent fluency in English (written and verbal).
• French or Spanish is a plus

Core Skills & Competencies

• Structured problem-solving & strategic thinking: You break down complex, ambiguous problems quickly and develop clear, actionable recommendations — the kind that a minister or a multilateral VP can act on.
• Change management & implementation: You understand that strategy without implementation is just paper. You know how to design for adoption, manage resistance, and build institutional ownership.
• Entrepreneurial & builder mindset: You can take an idea from whiteboard to pilot. You are comfortable with unstructured environments and motivated by building something, not just delivering it.
• Stakeholder management & communication: You engage credibly at the highest levels — with government ministers, donor executives, and foundation leadership — while remaining effective across teams and cultures.
• Project & team leadership: You manage multiple concurrent workstreams without dropping the ball, develop junior colleagues, and hold yourself and your team to a high bar.
• Global & cross-cultural collaboration: You have worked across geographies and cultures, and you know how to coordinate distributed teams effectively.
• AI-enabled working: You are genuinely curious about — and actively embrace — AI-powered workflows. At Instiglio, AI is not a future aspiration; it is central to how we research, synthesize, analyze, and deliver. The ideal candidate is already integrating AI tools into their daily work and is excited to push further.
• Adaptability & resilience: You thrive in ambiguity, adapt quickly to shifting priorities, and bring a low-ego, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude to whatever the work demands.